New grant fund to give Teesside apprenticeships a boost
The Apprenticeship Grant for Employers or AGE scheme provides funding of up to £3,500 for small businesses to employ 16 to 24 year-olds.
A new scheme to help more young people get on apprenticeships has been approved in Teesside.
The Tees Valley Combined Authority is one of only five Combined Authorities to receive devolved funding to deliver the scheme, designed to enable small businesses to recruit young apprentices.
The Apprenticeship Grant for Employers 16-24 (AGE) scheme provides funding of up to £3,500 for small businesses to employ individuals aged 16-24 years, through the apprenticeship programme with the potential of creating up to 700 apprentices.
The scheme is available only to those working to approved apprenticeship ‘Frameworks’ and is designed for businesses which would otherwise not have been in a position to employ an apprentice.
The Combined Authority will assess applications and process payments, and local eligibility criteria will apply.
Councillor Christopher Akers-Belcher, Lead Member for Skills for Tees Valley Combined Authority, said: "The devolving of the AGE grant to the Combined Authority will create significant opportunities for our smaller employers, in that we can be more flexible with the eligibility and features of a local scheme to make it available to as many Tees Valley businesses as possible.
"It will create more quality apprenticeships for our young people and provide employment and learning opportunities that will stand Tees Valley in good stead for the future."